Newsom proposes emergency rules to rein in intoxicating hemp industry

Gavin Newsom is proposing new rules targeting manufacturers of hemp products that are highly inebriating. The new rules would close loopholes that manufacturers in the “intoxicating hemp” industry have exploited to skirt restrictions on hemp products, allowing them to sell consumable goods with heavily inebriating effects, Newsom’s office said in a statement Friday morning. “We’re taking action to close loopholes and increase enforcement to prevent children from accessing these dangerous hemp and cannabis products,” Newsom said in the statement. Dr. Lynn Silver, senior advisor at the Public Health Institute, an Oakland-based independent nonprofit advocacy organization that advocated for AB 2223, said the new regulations “represent tremendous progress in protecting children and teenagers.” “The way things are now at present, a 10-year-old can walk into a vape shop and buy intoxicating products with more THC than legal edible cannabis products,” Silver said. “It’s a disgrace and it’s a shame and the industry bears full responsibility for not policing itself, for the proliferation of these intoxicating products that are hurting our children,” Newsom said as he stood next to a pile of colorfully packaged intoxicating hemp beverages and gummies that he said had been purchased on Thursday, adding later that “we’ve had enough.